"Could it be due to my special powers?"
Cheng Nuo suspected that this was highly possible. Without a doubt, there had been tremendous improvement to his mathematical capabilities, be it the ability of his eyes to quantify the dimensions of objects, or the supreme computational power of his brain.
The questions were the same, and they were equally as difficult as before.
But now, even problems that would give mathematical geniuses huge headaches seemed like pieces of cake to Cheng Nuo.
"The general equation for a circle in Cartesian coordinates is x^2 + y^2 + Dx + Ey + F=0. Suppose there is a point P(X,Y,Z). Construct simultaneous equations using Pythagoras's Theorem and Sum-to-product Identities…"
With his brain analyzing statistics at the speed of a supercomputer, Cheng Nuo could solve any problem with ease.
While most students had to struggle for a while on questions that required tedious calculations, Cheng Nuo could arrive at the correct answer in no time by simply passing the numbers through his mind.
"WTF, Bro! You're on fire!" Hao Shuai couldn't help but curse as he was totally impressed by Cheng Nuo's insane speed.
At that moment, Hao Shuai was still struggling at the fifth multiple choice question. He simply didn't want to give up. But he turned to see that Cheng Nuo was already doing the second long-structured question.
That was a huge difference!
Hao Shuai knew that Cheng Nuo's math was no better than his own. Besides, the questions this time were extremely difficult, just as Old Man Tang had warned. They were so hard that Hao Shuai was starting to doubt if everything he had learned so far was useless.
That was why he had only managed to solve four multiple choice questions after more than ten minutes.
Hence, how could Cheng Nuo do it so fast? It was impossible…
"Did he skip all the questions that he couldn't do?" Hao Shuai thought as this was the only plausible explanation he could come up with.
Hao Shuai glanced up to see Mr. Tang burying his nose in the test. So he whispered to Cheng Nuo in a slightly mocking tone,
"Cheng Nuo, you are so fast! How many questions did you skip?"
"Skip?" Cheng Nuo looked at Hao Shuai, confused about what he meant.
Hao Shuai explained, "I'm wondering if you've skipped all the questions you couldn't do. That's why you are so fast."
"Oh~" Cheng Nuo now understood what he was implying.
It turned out that this fellow was doubting his abilities!
Putting on a defeated look, Cheng Nuo nodded. "Yeah. I never do the questions I don't know how to do."
"As expected!"
Hao Shuai regained his ego after Cheng Nuo verified his guess. He even felt proud of himself somehow.
"Well, judging from Cheng Nuo's progress, he probably couldn't do most of the questions in front. In that case, I'm better than him. At least I managed to figure out the first four multiple choice questions."
Hao Shuai shifted his focus back to the test and prepared to conquer the next question. As Cheng Nuo turned the test over, Hao Shuai caught a glimpse of his fully-filled blanks on the first page.
"I thought you skipped those questions," Hao Shuai said, his voice shaking.
"No?" Cheng Nuo answered, "I said I skipped the questions I couldn't do, but… I could manage all of them!"
"You—"
Hao Shuai was speechless. He pointed his finger at Cheng Nuo but couldn't utter a word.
Looking smug, Cheng Nuo shaded his multiple choice answers on the OTAS sheet. Then he mumbled in a soft voice that only Hao Shuai could hear, "Haish. Even Old Man Tang said that this test is hard, but it's a breeze to a genius like me. It seems I'm destined to be a prodigy after all."
"Oi!" Hao Shuai almost had the urge to call the police. Shameless people like Cheng Nuo should be jailed for three days to reflect on their behavior!
However, he was still in disbelief at how Cheng Nuo had managed to do it so fast.
But there was no time to think about that now. He had just wasted nearly five minutes with Cheng Nuo, and here he was, still stuck on question five! Time was running out for Hao Shuai.
Upon seeing the look of shock on Hao Shuai's face, Cheng Nuo was very pleased with himself. It was such a pleasure to be a genius.
Based on the current situation, his special powers were indeed capable of making his life more colorful. So it wouldn't matter if he had not become a "conventional" superman.
Cheng Nuo had become even faster at solving problems now that he was more relaxed.
At 8:55 AM, it had been 45 minutes since the test started.
At that time, most of the students in class 18 had just finished the multiple choice questions.
But Cheng Nuo was only left with the two last long-structured questions, which were the hardest questions in the entire paper.
In Gaokao [1. Also known as National College Entrance Examination in China], the last two questions were often about calculus and elliptical functions, one on each topic. Old Man Tang's mock test followed the same trend too.
The first question was on calculus, and the second on ellipses.
These two topics used to be Cheng Nuo's worst nightmares. But now they were nothing to him.
His special powers made him unbeatable!
After a brief glance at the first question, Cheng Nuo immediately knew how to approach it. He had started the mental calculation without even writing down anything on the paper. Moreover, he could test the validity of a certain method within five seconds. After coming up with three different methods, he finally knew the correct way to solve the problem. One question down. Simple as that.
He did the same thing for the last question, and it was solved in less than ten minutes too.
One test was 150 marks in total, and Cheng Nuo had completed all 26 questions in 58 minutes and 12 seconds.
Finishing a math mock test in less than one hour was an unimaginable feat to Cheng Nuo before. But today, he had done it. Unfazed, Cheng Nuo wanted to relieve himself.
Actually, it was kind of urgent, because he had drunk too much water!
Cheng Nuo walked up to Old Man Tang and said, "Mr. Tang, can I go to the washroom?"
Mr. Tang was still doing the test, and he was at the second to last question. He looked at Cheng Nuo and waved his hand. "Go. Come back quickly."
In the washroom, Cheng Nuo played with his phone for a while before slowly returning to the classroom.
On the way back to his seat, Cheng Nuo saw that Old Man Tang was on the last question. "Not bad. But still not as pro as me, the genius."
Now that he had completed the test, would he check his answers? Nah. That's impossible! He had never done that, and he never would in the future. "I really like my new power. It's amazing!"
Since he wasn't allowed to sleep, Cheng Nuo started to daydream.